| Description | Minutes and Report Book of a committee appointed by the Council in 1921 to 'consider, and from time to time to report, on any questions affecting research in the University or associated with it'. The Committee was a standing committee of both Council and Senate and reported to both until 1976 when its constitution and terms of reference were changed and it reported to Senate only. It was initially called the Joint Standing Committee of Council and Senate. The minutes cover the entire period of the committee's existence, from 1921 to 1980, but the report book covers only the period from 1923 to 1945 and contains supporting papers submitted to the committee, primarily consisting of statements of funds, but including some reports on work undertaken in academic departments, and a smaller number of applications for grants by individual members of staff.
Membership of the committee initially consisted of the Vice-Chancellor, the Principal, five members elected by the Council, and eight members of the Senate elected on the nominations of the Faculties. Of these, the numbers in 1921 were set at three members of the Faculty of Science, two members of the Faculty of Arts, two members of the Faculty of Medicine, and one member of the Faculty of Commerce. Nominated members were appointed for two years, but were eligible for re-appointment. The Registrar was the permanent Secretary of the Committee.
Meetings of the committee were held at least once a term in the 1920s, but sometimes more frequently, though no meetings appear to have been held at all between November 1928 and December 1929. After this date, yearly meetings were held in the 1930s and 1940s, and twice yearly meetings from 1948 to the 1970s.
After the change in the committee's constitution in 1976, membership consisted of a Professor as chair; the Vice Chancellor and Pro-Vice-Chancellor as ex-officio members; and representatives of the Faculties, at least one of which to be drawn from the non-professorial staff
The Committee's function was to co-ordinate research work in the Faculties, to assist Heads of Departments in the promotion of research, and to advise Council as to how funds could be most effectively employed for this purpose. It received and considered regular reports from academic departments showing research work in progress and planned, together with estimates of expenditure for which assistance was required through the Committee. It used this information, and other reports submitted by academic departments and individuals, to compile annual printed reports, first called the Joint Standing Committee for Research report, and later the Research and Publications report. A sequence of these printed reports is held in the University Archives, see UB/P/8.
The reports contained a general statement of research work undertaken each academic session, followed by full appendices giving particulars of research in progress, publications, grants in aid, and a balance sheet. Publication of the report was suspended during the Second World War, but the committee agreed at its meeting on 30 November 1945 that a copy of research published since the suspension of the report would be compiled. The publication of the annual report resumed from the 1946-1947 academic session. Minutes of the meeting held on 18 November 1949 state that the titles of some theses would be included in the annual reports. There was an Editorial Sub-Committee to manage the compilation of the annual report from the late 1940s, and sometimes reports of this sub-committee are included with minutes of the Research Committee. The Editorial Sub-Committee co-ordinated submissions from academic departments and decided on the structure of the reports. Minutes of the meeting held on 24 May 1957 include a copy of a memorandum written by the Registrar which contains a proposed new distribution list for the annual report of institutions in the UK and the Commonwealth, including universities, learned societies and institutions, government departments and other agencies, industrial concerns, and libraries
The Committee received and considered regular reports from academic departments showing research work in progress, and planned, together with estimates of expenditure for which assistance was required through the Committee. It made or assisted members of University staff in making applications for assistance in research to outside bodies, and advised University Council of the amount, over and above funds provided from other than University sources, required to enable the research work of the academic session to be carried out. It collected for publication in the University Calendar information about scholarships, fellowships, and other paid appointments; considered the adequacy and conditions of tenure of existing research appointments in the University and made recommendations to Council; considered applications for grants in aid of publication, leave of absence, or exemption from teaching duties by individual members of staff; and received and reported to Council on applications for assistance in research from bodies outside the University.
When it was first established, the Committee gathered information about research work in progress across the University. The Principal issued a circular letter to Heads of Departments asking for details of research work in progress or proposed; the expenditure involved; sources of financial help; and the need for additional assistance. A copy of this letter is included with minutes of the first meeting of the committee, held on 16 June 1921. The Committee discussed research schemes or scholarships offered by external bodies and bequests and research funds available within the University, and recommended sums of money for grants in aid of research to individual academic departments. The Committee read applications by individual members of staff for grants to facilitate their research, and the minutes record the Committee's decision. Minutes of meetings held in the 1920s occasionally mention gifts to the University for use in research work, to be disbursed by the Committee, and there are also references to bequests dedicated to research, including the Holcroft bequest and the John Spencer bequest, both mentioned in minutes of the meeting held on 26 January 1923, for example, where the terms of the bequests are explained.
Minutes of meetings held in the 1920s and 1930s contain information about individual research projects undertaken by staff, and the appointment of research assistants; and grants for the purchase of equipment and materials. There are references to the submission of programmes of work and estimates for research projects by individual members of staff. Lists of graduate students nominated for grants from external bodies, for example the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, are also sometimes included.
Minutes typically include statements of research funds available and figures for grants in aid of research, though full financial records are given in the printed annual reports. By the late 1940s the statement of funds included a dedicated publications fund, and departmental journals began to be produced using resources from this fund. By the early 1950s the minutes record that there was also a specific fund for field research and expeditions. The minutes begin to contain more details about individual applications by members of staff for grants in aid of research, and minutes from the 1960s and 1970s regularly include statements of funds available.
Minutes of the meeting held on 20 May 1955 record discussion about the future function of the committee, leading from a suggestion that now that that research was recognised as equal in importance to teaching in the University the amount of time and trouble taken by the committee in making small additions to the expenditure of departments on research by means of comparatively small grants to members of the staff was becoming too great. It was recommended that money available for grants in aid of research should be distributed among the Faculties, leaving to each Faculty the allocation of its own sum to departments or to individual researches, with due regard to the earmarking of bequest and gift income. The Committee noted this, and agreed that the chair should put forward through the Faculties to the Senate these proposals, but recommended that the Research Committee should continue to review the annual report and to make grants from the Field Research and Expeditions fund and the Publications fund
After this, minutes of meetings include only applications for grants from the publications fund and the field research and expeditions fund. Minutes from the 1950s and 1960s include detailed applications for grants from the field research and expeditions fund, as well as some reports on field research and expeditions which had been the recipient of grants.
Minutes of the meeting held on 22 January 1962 record that the Committee recommended to the Committee of Principals and Deans that financial support should be provided to individuals undertaking research abroad in the field of social sciences and related studies, including legal studies and social medicine. This research could not at the time be financed by the Field Research and Expeditions fund because it was being undertaken by individuals, and the funds of the Faculty of Commerce and Social Science were not sufficient to meet these expenses. The minutes record details of the Committee's proposal, but minutes of the next meeting, held on 25 May 1962, record that the regulations of the Field Research and Expeditions Fund would be relaxed to allow the support of research by individuals overseas.
Minutes of meetings held in the 1960s contain increasingly detailed reports by the recipients of funds, particularly in the fields of archaeology and geography, but also botany, biology, and social sciences.
There are occasional references throughout the minutes to the possibility of establishing a University Press. Minutes of the meeting held on 12 June 1925 discuss proposals to publish volume of studies under the title University of Birmingham Research Publications. It appears that no decision was made, but the proposal is mentioned again in the 1940s. Minutes of the meeting held on 30 November 1962 include a copy of a memorandum giving an account of proposals made since 1948 for the establishment of a University Press. It seems that little progress was made in this area, as there are no further references to decisions made about the establishment of a University Press during the lifetime of the Committee
Minutes of meetings of the Committee held in the 1970s contain evidence of financial constraints on researchers, and of the University's difficult financial position due to the 1970s economic crisis, reflected in the freeze in research posts since 1974, the dissestablishment of posts, the decline in outside grants awarded to the University, and the University's policy to discourage the re-appointment of research staff beyond a total of six years. Minutes of the meeting held on 23 May 1977 include a copy of a paper by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts on the financing of an Arts and Humanities Research Council similar to the Scientific Research Council and the Social Science Research Council, and the minute refer to the possibility of focusing on attempts to improve the British Academy system. Minutes of the meeting held on 3 May 1978 contain copies of the report of a Science Research Council Working Group on academic and industrial collaboration, and the minutes contain further discussion about this later in 1978
After a review of the Committee's constitution and terms of reference in 1976 it no longer administered the Publications fund or the Field Research and Expeditions fund, but functioned to 'consider and report on any questions affecting research policy in the University'. There were suggestions that the functions of the Research Committee could be combined with those of the Research Councils and Research Staff Sub-Committee, but these were not carried forward. The Publications Office would now deal directly with academic departments concerning the production of the annual report, and the Faculties would distribute funds for field research and expeditions.
Meeting papers for the meeting due to be held on 30 October 1980 mention that the Committee of Principals and Deans had recommended that the Academic Executive should consider the future of the University Research Committee. No minutes of this meeting survive, but other sources indicate that the Research Committee was dissolved in 1980 |